The landscape architectural consultancy involved with Galway's Eyre Square refurbishment has criticised "ill-informed" comments about the project and its role.
The €9 million project is on hold following the sudden withdrawal of its main contractor, Samuel Kingston Construction, in late June.
Galway City Council is expected to appoint a new contractor shortly and has carried out emergency and security works at the city centre site.
Mitchell and Associates, a Dublin-based landscape consultancy, said Samuel Kingston Construction was appointed to carry out the work after a public tender procedure.
This took place under the principles of EU public procurement law and Government public procurement guidelines, it said, along with a team of consultants and legal advisers.
The procedure was held in "a fair, open and transparent manner" and followed publication of a contract notice in the EU journal, it said.
Four contractors were "pre-qualified" and were then invited to submit tenders which were also assessed under EU law.
"To do otherwise would have constituted a breach of EU procurement law and would have exposed Galway City Council to the risk of a significant claim for damages by Samuel Kingston Construction Ltd," Mitchell and Associates said in a statement yesterday.
"Any criticism of Mitchell and Associates, or indeed any of the other advisers to Galway City Council in respect of the appointment of Samuel Kingston Construction Ltd, is completely unfounded and unreasonable."
The city council and project leaders were criticised when it emerged that the construction firm had been issued a default notice by Pembrokeshire Housing Association over difficulties with a housing project in Wales.
In a separate development, the mayoral taskforce set up to move the Eyre Square redevelopment project ahead has recommended that more workers and longer working hours be built into any new contracts for the completion of the work.
The taskforce, which is led by Galway city's mayor, councillor Brian Walsh (Fine Gael), will be recommending to city manager Joe McGrath and his senior officials that the original plans for Eyre Square be followed through to completion by March 2006 through a series of initiatives and new previously unused contractual conditions.
Mr Walsh explained that these conditions included provisions for more staff and longer working hours which were designed to minimise the disruption to Galwegians, city-centre traders and tourists alike.